Hunger declines, but still 100 million go hungry in India, shows UN data
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2026 report, released jointly by UN agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), shows India's share of undernourished population has more than halved over two decades, from 21.1% in 2004-06 to 9.8% in 2023-25, a decline of roughly 101 million people.
Despite this progress, the report estimates about 100 million people in India still go hungry, reflecting the country's large population base.
As of 2025, an estimated 520.1 million Indians, or 35.5% of the population, cannot afford a nutritionally adequate ("healthy") diet, though this share has fallen sharply from 59.8% in 2017.
The cost of a healthy diet in India has risen nearly 48% since 2017, a faster increase than in several other economies, outpacing income growth for large sections of the population.
Child stunting has declined from 41.7% in 2012 to 32.9% in 2024, but wasting remains high at 18.7%, while childhood overweight, adult obesity and anaemia among women aged 15-49 have all risen, pointing to a coexisting "triple burden" of malnutrition.
SOFI Methodology: Undernourishment vs Hunger vs Food Insecurity
The FAO's Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) indicator, used to track Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), measures the share of a population whose habitual food consumption is insufficient to provide the dietary energy needed for an active, healthy life. This is distinct from the cost-of-a-healthy-diet indicator, which measures affordability of a nutritionally adequate diet rather than bare caloric sufficiency, and from the Food Insecurity Experience Scale, a survey-based measure of access to food.
Key Details
- SOFI is published annually by FAO along with UNICEF, WFP, WHO and IFAD.
- PoU captures calorie-deficiency ("hunger") while diet-cost/affordability indicators capture the broader inability to access a balanced, nutrient-adequate diet.
- India's large population means even a single-digit undernourishment percentage translates into a large absolute number of hungry people.
The apparent paradox of "declining hunger rate but 100 million still hungry" is a direct function of applying a percentage-based PoU indicator to India's population scale, a distinction the report is designed to make explicit.
National Food Security Act, 2013 and the Public Distribution System
The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 gives a statutory, legally enforceable right to subsidised foodgrains, covering up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population (about 67% of the total population nationally), delivered through the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).
Key Details
- Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households, the poorest segment, receive 35 kg of foodgrain per family per month; Priority Households receive 5 kg per person per month.
- State-wise coverage ratios are determined using NITI Aayog methodology based on NSSO household consumption data.
- The PDS addresses calorie/staple-grain access but does not by itself resolve dietary diversity or affordability of proteins, fruits and vegetables, which drive the broader "healthy diet" affordability gap.
The NFSA-based safety net is a plausible driver of India's steep decline in undernourishment, but the persistence of high diet-cost unaffordability shows the gap between ensuring caloric sufficiency and ensuring nutritional adequacy.
Mission POSHAN 2.0 and the Triple Burden of Malnutrition
Mission POSHAN 2.0 (Prime Minister's Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition), launched in 2021-22 by merging POSHAN Abhiyaan (launched March 2018) with the Integrated Child Development Services and Scheme for Adolescent Girls, targets reduction of stunting, wasting, underweight prevalence and anaemia among children, adolescent girls, and pregnant and lactating women.
Key Details
- POSHAN Abhiyaan's original 2018 targets included reducing stunting by 2 percentage points a year and anaemia by 3 percentage points a year.
- The "triple burden of malnutrition" refers to the simultaneous presence of undernutrition (stunting/wasting), micronutrient deficiency (anaemia), and overnutrition (childhood overweight/adult obesity) within the same population.
- National Family Health Survey (NFHS) rounds provide the domestic benchmark data against which POSHAN 2.0 progress is measured.
The SOFI report's finding of declining stunting alongside rising obesity and persistently high anaemia is a textbook illustration of the triple burden that Mission POSHAN 2.0 is explicitly designed to address, showing mixed progress against its own targets.
- India's undernourishment rate fell from 21.1% (2004-06) to 9.8% (2023-25), per SOFI 2026.
- About 100 million people in India remain undernourished/hungry despite this decline.
- 520.1 million Indians (35.5%) could not afford a healthy diet as of 2025, down from 59.8% in 2017; diet costs rose nearly 48% since 2017.
- Child stunting fell from 41.7% (2012) to 32.9% (2024); wasting stood at 18.7%.
- Anaemia among women aged 15-49 rose from 50.1% to 53.7%; adult obesity doubled over the period covered.
- NFSA, 2013 covers up to 75% of the rural and up to 50% of the urban population (about 67% nationally).